Visionary entrepreneur Jigar Shah, Solar Pioneer; Founder of SunEdison; 1st CEO of the Carbon War Room (with Richard Branson); author, of “Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy: Discover How to Participate in the Largest Wealth Creation Opportunity of our Time,” got attention at LinkedIn Pulse in October 2014 for the idea of companies jumping in to lend billions to finance the rapid expansion of pay-as-you-go solar to a billion people.

In the first day, 84 people commented on his posting at LinkedIn Pulse. We chimed in from LightUp, saying

Thanks, Jigar — Great to get this idea circulating! As far as I can tell, Facebook doesn’t have billions in profits it doesn’t want to repatriate; it could start this up. But more than 10 other companies each have over $30B overseas, mostly invested in ways that don’t directly contribute to the companies’ core activities. See http://beyondcassandra.org/lightup-investment-change-world/ for the list and for more about this idea. And by the way, though the retail cost of 250 million systems at $200 is $50B, the amount needed for a working capital loan fund is actually $25B, since these pay-as-you-go deals mean that the fund would turn around twice in five years. This could happen!